Google Owns 100% Of 2017's Top 10 Fastest-Growing SDKs On Android

John Koetsier
, ContributorJohn Koetsier is a journalist, analyst, author, and speaker.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

When you're king, you're king.

Google built what Android is today, and as such has a privileged position in the ecosystem.

But it's still shocking to see that the search and mobile giant owns every single one of the ten fastest-growing software development kits (SDKs) in the Android ecosystem, according to SDK mobile app intelligence firm MightySignal. Especially since it's hard to grow fast from an already-huge installed base.

Most of them are part of Google's massive and comprehensive mobile development platform, Firebase.

MightySignal

The fastest-growing mobile SDKs of 2017

SDKs are the building blocks of applications, in a sense. They allow developers to quickly add functionality like social logins or ad-based monetization to their apps without having to build it themselves. But the creators and owners of popular SDKs find themselves in powerful positions in the market, since critically important and valuable data about apps, users, activity, and monetization flows through them.

The most-used SDK is for app monetization via advertising, Google's raison d'etre. Admob's installed base is now over 1.1 million apps, according to MightySignal. And that's just on Android -- Admob is also in wide usage on iOS, Apple's mobile development platform.